1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to lesion tracking and, more specifically, to multi-modal lesion quantification and tracking.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Computer aided medical diagnosis is the process of using computer analysis of medical images to help a medical practitioner such as a radiologist diagnose and treat patients. Computer aided medial diagnosis may use medical images obtained from a number of imaging modalities. Common modalities include computer tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), magnetic resonance (MR), and ultrasound. These various modalities may be used to image anatomical and functional aspects of the patient so that disease, injury and congenital disorder may be accurately diagnosed.
Computer aided medical diagnosis is particularly useful in the field of oncology. For example, medical practitioners may use computer aided medical diagnosis to help track the progression of one or more lesions. Moreover, the nature of the lesions may be automatically quantified to more accurately track the lesions.
Lesion quantification and tracking may prove useful for both following the natural progression of a lesion and to measure the effectiveness of treatment. For example, imaging studies may be performed both pre-therapy and post therapy, and lesions may be quantified and tracked at both of the two studies. By comparing the quantified values for the lesion in both studies, the effectiveness of the applied treatment may be gauged.
As discussed above, many modalities may be used to obtain medical images. Some modalities such as the CT are best suited for illustrating anatomical structure, while other modalities such as the PET are best suited for illustrating functional aspects. For example, image information obtained from a PET scan may be well suited to track the progress of a lesion while image information obtained from a CT scan may be well suited to provide the structural information necessary to accurately direct radiation therapy to the site of the lesion. Moreover, various other differences in obtaining and processing images from various modalities leads to acquired images that differ vastly in overall appearance and diagnostic value.
As the acquisition of certain imaging modalities such as CT scans may lead to exposure to ionizing radiation that may be harmful to the patient and may incur substantial expenses, it may be desirable to minimize the total number of imaging studies performed. Accordingly, benefit may be derived from approaches that can perform efficient lesion quantification and tracking using diverse modalities so that the number of imaging studies required may be minimized.
However, because the characteristics of images from various modalities differs so substantially, it may be difficult on one hand for medical practitioners to effectively compare data obtained from various modalities and it may be difficult on the other hand for medical practitioners to use the same modalities that are used for tracking and quantification for the accurate direction of therapy.